Last night after the finish to the Cook Out 400, Joey Logano drove over to Austin Dillon’s pit box and revved his engine up a bit in frustration. Apparently, Logano could face penalties from NASCAR for his actions on pit road.
Joey Logano was leading going into the final corner and he ended up finishing P19 when it was all said and done. Austin Dillon meanwhile, went on to then wreck Denny Hamlin out of his way to claim the victory.
From there, Logano went down pit road to the No. 3 pit box. He revved his engine and did a small burnout to express his displeasure. A NASCAR official ran to his car and told him to cut it out and then had a conversation with Logano.
Elton Sawyer, Senior VP of Competition, spoke to the media after the race. He addressed the Logano pit road situation, which all things considered, seems like the least of NASCAR’s concerns from last night.
“We’ll take, you know, we don’t want to make a split-second decision and get it wrong, so we want to make sure we go back, and we’ll look at everything that happened on the last lap and postrace and see if any penalties need to be issued,” Sawyer said when asked about Logano’s actions, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.
As far as the Austin Dillon move on the final lap, Elton Sawyer believes that is getting close to crossing the line of unacceptable. Real close.
“It happened fast but I would say if you look at that in my view that’s getting right up really close to crossing the line.”
A lot happened last night, and it would be bizarre for Joey Logano to end up with a penalty or fine after all of this.
Joey Logano: Austin Dillon has ‘sucked his whole career’
After the finish, Joey Logano was rightfully upset. He had been up in the front of the race for most of the day, just like Dillon. On the final restart, he beat Dillon off the line and got by him cleanly.
Heading into the final turn, Logano had a three to four car length lead on Dillon. No one expects a bump and run from that far back, ever. Dillon overdrove the corner and used Logano as his brakes.
“No, when you get that far ahead, three four car lengths ahead in three. I didn’t back up the entry, I was like, ‘I’ll just wrap the bottom here, I’m good.’ And he just drives in so hard,” Logano said, via Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. “Obviously, he didn’t make the turn because he hit me and the 11 was going to win the race. So, he had no intention to race. I beat him fair and square on the restart and he just pulled a chickenshit move. He’s a piece of crap, he sucks. He’s sucked his whole career, and now he’s going to be in the playoffs and good for him, I guess.
While most thought the two tire compounds would be the topic coming out of this race, it is the last-lap chaos that stole the show. NASCAR, folks.
